Every famous cover has a hidden history. In Who Did It First, we track down the original recordings of the songs you know and love. From the forgotten R&B tracks that launched rock and roll legends to the obscure demos that became global pop hits, we pull back the curtain on the first versions of iconic songs—correcting the record on who actually sang it first.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Hazy Shade of Winter was a Bangles original. By the time the 1980s rolled around, most people who knew the original artists well, Simon & Garfunkel, probably thought of it as a deep cut from their Bookends album. It has been released in 1966 as a single, though, and it … Read more
When the Rolling Stones recorded As Tears Go By, as iconic a Stones song as they come, they were actually covering their on song. It was written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Andrew Loog Oldham in the early 1960s. However, The group was then mainly focused on blue-based music. They wrote the song for Marianne … Read more
So many nights, I sit by my window, wondering who was it, who sang this here song. It’s painfully slow. It has that typical seventies, written on a piano with factory-stamped background ‘orchestra’ accompaniment. It’s kind of pretty, but you just want it to stop after the first chorus. Or, who knows? Maybe you love … Read more
Life Is a Highway was given a big boost in 2006 by being featured in the Pixar animated movie Cars. That version, however, was actually a cover performed by Rascal Flatts. The original was released by Tom Cochrane in 1992. It was a no. 1 hit in Canada, Cochrane’s home country and it went to … Read more
George Harrison had a number one hit with Got My Mind Set on You in January of 1988. It was his last number one hit and the only one he didn’t write himself. The song was written by Rudy Clark and first recorded by James Ray in 1962. Harrison first heard it in 1963 while … Read more
When Tainted Love was first released in 1964 as the B-side of a record called ‘My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home.’ It was a total commercial failure. No, you are not experiencing a senior moment. Soft Cell’s Tainted Love, released in 1981, was a cover of a song recorded by Gloria Jones and produced and written by Ed … Read more
The Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody is a soaring, or as Billboard put it in 2007, towering song. Few know that it was not an original. In fact, the song was over ten years old when The Righteous Brothers recorded it. It was originally written by written by Alex North and Hy Zaret, penned for the 1955 prison … Read more